Andhra plans exclusive police stations for women

Hyderabad, Feb 11 (IANS) One police station exclusively for women would be set up in each of the districts of Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy announced Monday.

He declared at a high-level meeting that two-to-four all-women police stations would be set up in Hyderabad and one-two each in urban towns like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Kurnool, Guntur, Waranagal and Tirupati, according to a press release from the chief minister's office.

The state has 23 districts including the capital Hyderabad.

The chief minister also directed the officials take measures to expedite the investigations into cases under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and ensure conviction.

The state government will write to the Andhra Pradesh High Court to fill up the vacancies of judges in the designated special courts for these cases.

Kiran Kumar Reddy chaired the state-level high power vigilance and monitoring committee meeting on the act.

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment P. Balram Naik, state Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy and other ministers and top officials attended the meeting.